Ah yes, the Rangers have too many offensive
defensemen...how often have you heard that line on message boards around
the Internet? Well in a way I agree with that comment, but not
perhaps in the sense that the writers intended.

What those posters really mean is of course
that the Rangers have too many offensively minded blueliners who are
looking to jump up in the play given the chance, and if you look at the
numbers on the defensive side of the puck (29th in Goals Against, 30th in
Penalty Kill) you might be inclined to agree. But that's not why I'm
writing this article today...

Rather lets for a moment take a look at the
other side of the equation. Rangers General Manager, Glen Sather has
constructed this team to play an offensive style of game and therefore the
need for offensive minded defensemen. On first pass it looks like
the Rangers got fairly good production out of their blueliners...10th
overall in points (146) and 12 in power play points (46), but let's take a
closer look.

Last season the Rangers entire defensive
corps managed just 22 goals which put them 28th in the league, ahead of
just Pittsburgh and Boston. Those 22 goals accounted for less than
ten percent of the Rangers total, a figure that ranked them ahead of
Boston alone. On the power play things were just as bad...a total of
4 power play goals for the season tied them for 29th with Calgary and was
five fewer than the league average.

To be fair the Rangers did go with four
forwards on their first power play unit, which reduced the opportunities
for the defensemen to score to some extent. You can't however, say
the Rangers defense had no chances...Leetch managed just one goal with 394
minutes of power play time, the most power play time of anyone on the
team. Malakhov spent 206 minutes with the man advantage for his
solitary goal, while Berard had a fruitless 173 minutes. By
contrast, Tom Poti and Darren Van Impe needed just 30 and 36 minutes
respectively to register their lone power play goals.

So what happened?

A large part of the blame belongs to the
coaching staff. Even during their successful run in November of last
season, the Rangers power play failed to get going, while the coaches
persisted with Fleury on the point. Opposition goalies had clear
sight of the shot from the blueline and had little worry of a rebound
being picked up by a Ranger forward driving to the net. The Rangers
couldn't even get the defense moving with their passing on the power play
and thus the points weren't really given much opportunity. The same
to some extent can be said for even strength, when once again the point
men were underutilized.

More blame can of course be placed on the
players themselves. Brian Leetch's solitary power play goal was the
lowest since his rookie year where he played just 17 games, while his 10
goals was fewer than half of his previous season's total of 21.
Berard too was a disappointment considering all the hype that surrounded
his return. his 2 goal total was the lowest of his career, though
perhaps not too surprising considering he had just 3 in his last season of
64 games with Toronto. And the of course Malakhov, who started well
but ended the season a little flat. Probably to be expected
considering he'd played just 24 games in the previous two seasons, and was
asked to play a more defensive role while paired with Leetch.

So how do they improve?

First off you get forwards standing and
driving to the front of the net. It seems year after year we say the
same thing...hopefully with the addition of Holik and a new coaching
staff, we'll start to see a little more of that happening in the upcoming
season.

Go with two defensemen on the points of the
power play. Fleury is now gone and to be honest he wasn't
particularly effective at keeping the puck in the zone anyway...by putting
Leetch and Poti on the points you get two players with good shots and the
familiarity of playing the defensive position. Get the forwards to
actually rotate back to the point when the defensemen skates in and you've
probably got one of the best power play units in the league.

Letting go of Berard and adding Poti was
also a big step. Berard was not particularly strong offensively and
was often times a liability on defense. Poti while not the greatest
defenseman has seemingly better potential on offense. His lone goal
for the Rangers in his brief eleven game stint did come on the power
play...an encouraging sign.

Finally, either split Leetch and Malakhov
or take a long look at a player like Lintner or Tutin in camp.
Putting either one of those on the third pairing would enable the Rangers
to go with two defensive pairings on the power play and would provide some
puck moving ability on the third pair. It's a riskier move given
that their partner will probably be one of Karpa, Kloucek or Lefebvre, but
the risk might be worth it.

Yes, last year's Rangers defensemen were
offensive, but in the unappealing sense. I am optimistic this year
that the new coaching staff can implement a better approach to the game
than what we've seen and that will be a big part of any success the
Rangers enjoy this year, but there are some key players who will need to
step up for this season and I expect nothing less.